India Tribunal Asks Telecom Department To Refund Penalty Imposed For Delayed Rollouts
January 13 2012 - 6:55AM
Dow Jones News
India's telecommunications tribunal Friday overturned the
Department of Telecommunications' decision to levy penalties on
some telecom companies for delays in rolling out services, and
ordered it to refund the fines it had already collected.
Telenor ASA's (TEL.OS) unit Unitech Wireless Ltd., Emirates
Telecommunications Corp. (ETISALAT.AD) unit Etisalat DB Telecom
Pvt. Ltd. and Sistema JSFC's (AFKS.RS) Sistema Shyam Teleservices
Ltd. are among the companies which paid the fines.
Mobile phone operators in India are required to launch their
services within a year of receiving radio bandwidth.
The companies, which got their licenses in 2008 and were
penalized by the department in late 2010, had appealed to the
Telecom Disputes Appellate Tribunal against the order.
In its order, a two-judge bench of the tribunal said the
department didn't give an opportunity to the companies to present
their views, and asked the department to refund with interest the
fines paid by the companies in four weeks.
Unitech Wireless, in a statement, said its contention was that
the damages charged were unreasonable as they didn't "fully factor
in the delays on the part of the Department of
Telecommunications."
Etisalat DB Telecom didn't offer any comment, while Loop Telecom
and Sistema Shyam weren't available for comments.
-By R. Jai Krishna, Dow Jones Newswires, +91.11.4356.3333;
krishna.jai@dowjones.com
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